The domain address, belonging to Nigeria’s leading financial institution, Guaranty Trust Bank, otherwise known as GTBank, has been compromised by hackers.
The incident, which rendered the online platform inaccessible, was reported by customers late at night on Wednesday, August 14, 2024. Checks by Pulse corroborated this as multiple attempts to log into www.gtbbank.com returned error messages.
The development comes barely 24 hours after the renewal of the domain name for another five years counting from August 13, 2023, through March 21, 2029, per multiple online platforms that analyse domain information.
Cybersecurity experts with experience in the Nigerian banking sector have posited that the bank’s login details might have been compromised, as against the domain address itself being stolen for a resale at a more lucrative deal online.
No group of hackers has claimed responsibility for the breach as of yet. However, the attackers appeared to have created another HTTP layer of the website in an apparent scheme to steal customers’ data through phishing.
GTBank’s customers have already started expressing frustrations over their inability to conduct transactions on the compromised website.
Taking to X social media platform, the customers lamented the inconveniences caused by the incident and expressed fears over the possibility of their data being compromised.
Responding to complaints on the microblogging platform, GTBank representatives urged customers to be patient and send their requests to a designated channel.
The bank’s mobile infracture appeared not affected by the attack, as iOS and Android-based apps were still functional at press time.
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